(Also read: "CNN's New Chief Ken Jautz: We Need to Be More Engaged.")
Jon Klein is out at CNN after serving as the cable network’s president for six years -- with the last few marked by slumping ratings for its signature shows and primetime stars. 
Klein will be replaced by a pair of execs: Ken Jautz and a yet-to-be-hired managing editor.
Jautz was previously the executive vice president of CNN Worldwide where he oversaw group administration and operations at CNN's Headline News Network. CNN's chief marketing officer Scott Safon will be take over for Jautz at Headline News.
CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton made the announcement on Friday in a memo to CNN’s staff.
"Jon’s six years as head of CNN/U.S. are reflected in the quality of our coverage of signal news events during his tenure: the tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 election cycle and the Haiti earthquake, as well as shows like Anderson Cooper 360, The Situation Room and Fareed Zakaria GPS, all of which bear his imprint," Walton wrote in the memo. "Jon has made important contributions to the CNN story, and he leaves with our respect and friendship, and with my sincere thanks.
CNN’s ratings plummeted the last few years under Klein -- particularly in primetime. Larry King lost more than 40 percent of his total viewers during the first half of 2010. CNN’s total primetime viewer average (594,000) plummeted 31 percent during the second quarter, 28 percent in the key 25-to-54-year-old demographic. Anderson Cooper’s ratings fell 28 percent in total viewers and 25 percent in the demo during that time.
But ratings for HLN, which had been flat for nearly a decade, improved dramatically under Jautz’s watch. In 2009, HLN was the only cable news network to gain marketshare other than Fox News. And the success has continued this year. “The Joy Behar Show,” for example, had biggest bump of any primetime show among total viewers (up 39 percent) during the second quarter. During that period, HLN was parked in fourth in primetime in both average total viewers (487,000) and 25-to-54-year-olds (158,000), but not far behind third place CNN.
Klein, who had long resisted the rising tide of “partisan” news programming of his cable rivals, took a bit of a left turn this summer -- hiring a pair of ideological sparring partners (Eliot Spitzer, the former governor of New York, and Kathleen Parker, the conservative columnist) for a new primetime show at 8 p.m. A week later, Larry King announced he would leave CNN after 25 years as the host of "Larry King Live," a show that saw its ratings slide more than 40 percent during the first half of the year. Klein and co. replaced King with Piers Morgan.
But why replace Klein now, without seeing the how his new lineup fares?
"It was important to make these moves before we launched the new programs," Walton said during a conference call.
